Section » Human Rights Latin America

Brazil, denouncement in sharp rise in violence against journalists

National Newspaper Association in its annual Press Freedom lamented the sharp rise in cases of violence against media representatives in Brazil, because between August 2008 and July 2010, there has been only one murder. Read Article

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Bolivian rape trial provides insight into secrective Mennonite colony

Susana Banman dreads the dark. Since one terrible night in early 2009, she and her husband check the closets and lock newly installed window latches each night before going to sleep in their picturesque Mennonite community of Manitoba Colony, in the eastern lowlands of Bolivia. “Even still, I can’t sleep through the night,” says the […]

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Andean Community to strengthen integration during Lima meeting

Representatives of the Andean Community (CAN) will meet today in Lima to evaluate a “re-engineering” of the Andean group which allows to strengthen the sub-regional integration process. Colombian Foreign Minister Maria Angela Holguin is to chair the meeting which will address social issues such as the participation of Afro-descendant communities, Andean cooperation and specific environmental […]

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Colombia, interview with activist IRENE RAMÍREZ

“I repeat: there will be no peace talks without concrete actions. Words are not enough,” Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos said on a visit to Argentina this week. Earlier, in Chile, he said for the first time since taking office a year ago that he was “willing” to eventually sit down to talks with the […]

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Venezuela, Venezuela 21 / Aug / 2011 11:49 a.m. No comments Morales calls for respect for women representing Public Authorities

From Parque Carabobo, Caracas, the head of the highest court said they are “firm, with more strength every day. Each day we will be more and more resolutely keeping the Venezuelan institutions, defending the public powers and carrying out our Constitution”. Read Article

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Latin America, U.S. moves beyond traditional diplomacy

The United States has never experienced a more auspicious moment to advance its fundamental national interests in the Americas. Today, most nations of the hemisphere are building on democratic success, economic growth, expanding capacity, and regional integration to overcome past inequities and to drive major internal transformation. Read Article

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Argentina, Man gets 14 years for killing stepdaughter’s girlfriend

Daniel Torres was found guilty today in Córdoba and sentenced to 14 years in prison for murdering his stepdaughter’s girlfriend, reports infobae.com. He was charged and convicted of aggravated manslaughter with the use of a weapon after shooting Natalie Gaitán with a shotgun on March 6, 2010, for being in a lesbian relationship with his […]

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Debate abortion rights of Argentine girl raped by uncle

The judicial system in Posadas, the capital city of Misiones, is deciding this week whether or not to allow a 14-year-old girl an abortion after she was raped and impregnated by her uncle, reports lanacion.com.ar. Misiones currently has no specific regulations regarding legal abortion procedures. The mother of the girl told reporters that her daughter […]

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Child Sex Workers in Brazil

These children end up on the street for various reasons—poverty, deaths in the family, lack of educational opportunities, marginalization, sexual abuse in the home (often by fathers and step-fathers). Usually very poor and desperate, these kids depend on this kind of work for survival. Many of them support their families by prostituting, and it’s also […]

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Latin America, 20 journalists killed to date in 2011

Dominican TV reporter José Agustín Silvestre was killed yesterday, according to local reports, bringing this year’s death toll on journalists in Latin America to 20. Silvestre’s sister told local news outlet El Siglio 21 that he was beaten and kidnapped outside his house in La Romana by four men, who fired shots as they took […]

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Human Trafficking Affects All Areas of Bogotá, Colombia

•According to eltiempo.com, human trafficking, which affects all sectors of Bogotá, is mainly caused by poverty and displacement. •Colombia’s capital is a main destination for child trafficking from all over the country from areas such as the Llanos Orientales or the Atlantic Coast, and children are also trafficked from the city to other parts of […]

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Brazil, journalist murdered

A journalist has been gunned down in Brazil’s west-central state of Mato Grosso, the fourth to be killed in the country for his work this year, according to the International Press Institute (IPI)’s Death Watch. Read Article

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Mexico: DIF Director Urges Teens to Stay in Hometowns

The director of Mexico’s Integral Family Development (DIF) institute, Cecilia Landerreche, urged Mexico’s young people to stay in their hometowns with their families during a visit to a migratory station in Chiapas, La Crónica de Hoy reports. She also said that adolescents should receive education about the risks of human trafficking and sexual exploitation that […]

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IAPA rejects deterioration of press freedom in Latin America

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) on Friday denounced the deterioration of press freedom in Latin America and, in particular, called upon Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa to “cease harassment of the press.” Read Article

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Ecuador: Papers Leave Opinion Section Blank in Protest of Presidential Censorship

According to America.Infobae.com the Ecuadorian newspapers El Comercio and Hoy altered their papers to protest a ruling that incarcerates three directors of the news organization, El Universo for three years and payment of a fee totaling $42 million. The ruling came after a journalist for El Universo wrote an opinion piece about Rafael Correa’s governmental […]

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Ecuador, Freedom of Press

For a man who calls his country’s legal system dysfunctional and corrupt, Rafael Correa, Ecuador’s president, has fared remarkably well before the courts. In 2008 he won a $600,000 suit against Banco Pichincha, the country’s biggest bank, because it had erroneously included him on a list of delinquent credit-card holders. On July 20th he was […]

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Mexico: 20 Exploited Minors Rescued in Ciudad Juárez

The Mexican Federal Police conducted Operation Alba on July 22, resulting in the capture of 1030 people presumed to be involved in human trafficking, HispanTV reports. According to a report by the Department of Public Safety, the nine-hour operation resulted in the rescue of 20 female minors after searching several establishments in the center of […]

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Mexico,Police rescue 12 kidnapped migrants (Including one Iranian) in Mexico

At least 12 migrants, including two women, who were kidnapped two months ago in Mexico have been rescued by police, officials said. The migrants – eight Central Americans, three Brazilians and an Iranian – were found at a house in Reynosa city across the border from McAllen, Texas, the Public Safety Secretariat said. Read Article

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Venezuela: Opposition Leader Convicted for Criticizing Government

The conviction of Oswaldo Álvarez Paz for disseminating “false information” – on the basis of his criticism of the Chávez government – is a move against free speech in Venezuela, Human Rights Watch said today. Venezuela should revoke its law that criminalizes disseminating “false information,” Human Rights Watch said. Read Article

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Ecuador: A Blow to Free Speech

The conviction of President Rafael Correa’s critics for criminal defamation violates Ecuador’s international human rights obligations and should be overturned on appeal, Human Rights Watch said today. Ecuador should abolish the defamation provisions in its criminal code, Human Rights Watch said. Read Article

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Media watchdogs condemn Ecuador libel ruling

Media watchdogs around the world have denounced an Ecuadorian court decision to send four journalists to prison and impose a $40m fine for libel against President Rafael Correa. Correa pledged not to keep “one cent” of the libel award against the El Universo, a daily newspaper, after a judge convicted senior newspaper managers Carlos, Cesar […]

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Argentina, Negative DNA results don’t dissuade the Grandmothers

A press conference was called today by the president of the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, Estela de Carlotto, after DNA results came back negative over the weekend that would have linked the Noble Herrera brother and sister to families of disappeared children during the dictatorship in the 70s and 80s. The Noble Herrera […]

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Calderon signs legal reform against human trafficking and organized crime

Felipe Calderon, president of Mexico, signed a decree that strengthens laws against human trafficking to halt the abuse of organized criminals reported El Punto Critico. Calderon is confident that the reform will help fight violence and save innocent people from the hell power of organized crime. The president also encouraged citizens to be weary of […]

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Urban poverty and urban violence are growing in El Salvador

Urbanization is something that every country faces at one point or another in its development. The US, for example, experienced urbanization during the industrial revolution and on to the early 20th century. Today, many developing countries are also experiencing it. Because it is part of the path to development, urbanization is an indicator worth analyzing […]

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Pro-Zelaya radio journalist shot to death Honduras

Nery Jeremías Orellana, 26, the manager of Radio Joconguera in the town of Candelaria, in the western department of Lempira, was gunned down yesterday morning, bringing the number of Honduran journalists killed since the start of the year to three. A total of 12 journalists have been killed in the past 18 months in Honduras […]

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US leans on Guatemala to enforce trade pact

Seven years after Guatemala signed a free-trade pact with the US that included an agreement to enforce its labor laws, Guatemalan union leaders complain that they are still assassination targets, and that businessmen still illegally fire workers. Read Article

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Three thousand gay marriages in Argentina, one year after legalization

A year after Argentina legalized gay marriage, the Argentine Federation of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender reports that there have been almost 3 thousand gay marriages, 60% of them between men, and the majority occurring in Buenos Aires, per sdpnoticias.com. Congress passed the law on July 15, 2010, with 33 votes in favor, 27 against […]

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Consolation caravan plans march this September

Mexican poet Javier Sicilia, head of the victims movement against violence in Mexico, stated that in September the Consolation caravan will march from the south to the center of Mexico according to EFE. Sicilia gave up poetry in April after the murder of his son, and has since organized activist movements throughout Mexico. His influence […]

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Argentina, 600 women kidnapped for trafficking in 18 months

In the wake of the ban of prostitution advertising, Argentine politicians like mayoral candidate in Gualeguaychú, Osvaldo Chesini, are calling for stronger action against sex trafficking, according to analisisdigital.com.ar. Chesini says locations that promote sex trafficking, especially whiskey bars, need to be closed down and that clear, immediate policies against the crime are the only […]

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Argentina bans prostitution advertising

Put into effect today, the federal government of Argentina has banned public advertising of prostitution, according to infobae.com. The command was published this morning in the Official Gazette. In an announcement at the Casa Rosada last night, President Kirchner said the new legislation is part of Argentina’s effort to combat sex trafficking. The law also […]

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Discriminatory Facebook page shut down in Córdoba, Argentina

The Córdoba branch of the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism (INADI) shut down a Facebook group last night that advertised a club for young men that had “no blacks” and “no floggers (similar to hipsters),” according to lavoz.com.ar. The page promoted the City Festival club in Patio Olmos, but was not the official […]

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Chile Calm debate on environment needed after charges withdrawn against photographer

Reporters Without Borders welcomes the withdrawal of charges against photographer Marcela Rodríguez, a contributor to the Mapuexpress website, when she appeared before a court in the southern city of Temuco on 22 June. The public prosecutor decided it was not in the public interest to prosecute her. Read Article

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Community radio stations still denied access to air-waves

Did Honduras’ readmission to the Organization of American States mark the end of the sinister interlude that began with the coup d’état exactly two years ago, on 28 June 2009, and its disastrous impact on civil liberties and human rights? That was the question that the Latin America and Caribbean division of the World Association […]

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Women Suffer as “Spoils of War” in the Armed Conflict, Colombia

•Olga Amparo Sánchez, director of La Casa de La Mujer, described the role of women caught in the armed conflict as “spoils of war.” •In a report by RCN Radio, she states that from a young age, women are forced to go through pregnancies, sterilizations, and prostitution. •According to Amparo Sánchez, the women are regulated […]

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Colombian Police and Interpol Take Down Human Trafficking Network

•With Interpol’s support, the Colombian Police was able to take down 3 transnational organizations that specialized in trafficking Colombian women and forcing them into prostitution. •According to El Espectador, the groups also specialized in attaining false visas to Central America. •Five men, who trafficked young and underprivileged people by promising them work outside of the […]

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Paraguayan journalists protest media censorship

As Paraguayan journalist, Sandra López, awaits a verdict in court today for charges of defamation and slander against businesswoman and Baila conmigo contestant, Zuni Castiñeira, fellow journalists are holding a “silent” protest on the sixth floor, according to abc.com.py. About 30 journalists with tape in the shape of a cross over their mouths have joined […]

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Ecuador, refugee status requirements tightened

Ecuador’s Foreign Ministry said Monday that requirements for having refugee status in the South American country have been tightened. The new measures are based on the “citizen security policy” of the Ecuadorian government, said Leonardo Carrion, assistant secretary of migratory, consular and refugee issues at the ministry. Read Article

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Nicaragua, Rape Victim Launches New Hunger Strike for Justice

After a series of hunger strikes and vigils, Fátima Hernández had managed to become an exception, as one of the few rape victims in Nicaragua to obtain justice. But now her fight has started all over again and the hope that her case offered to others might become a mirage. On Monday, she began a […]

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Guatemala, Multi-Partner Alliance Wages War on Hunger

“Now I get supplies to feed my children, and I have a family garden where I grow carrots, onions and beets,” Marta Quinilla, a native of Uspantán, an area northwest of the Guatemalan capital that was devastated by the 36-year civil war, says cheerfully. This Quiché Maya indigenous woman belongs to one of 10,250 families […]

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The Jar of Severed Hands Spanish Deportation of Apache Prisoners of War 1770-1810

The jar of Severed Hands Spanish Deportation of Apache Perisoners of War 1770-1810 – Recorded Interview with author Mark Santiago (Recording Time – 01:08:26) The Jar of Severed Hands: The Spanish Deportation of Apache Prisoners of War, 1770-1810 Explores colonial Spanish-Apache relations in the Southwest borderlands More than two centuries after the Coronado Expedition first […]

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Peru: 1,600 Child Abuse Claims for January-May

Agencia EFE writes that in Peru 1,579 child sexual assault cases were reported in the first five months of 2011. According to the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences 226 arrests were made due to the cases reported. The institute reports that 1,032 cases of indecent acts, which do not include rape, were reported […]

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26.6% Mexicans wouldn’t allow foreigners to stay in their house

Refugee rights organizations are calling for reflection and citizen participation in Mexico for June 20, World Refugee Day, La Jornada reports. Refugees face intolerant attitudes, discrimination and challenges to integrating in Mexican society despite a series of new laws protecting refugees and migrants. According to the 2010 National Survey on Discrimination, 26.6% of Mexicans would […]

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Mexico City Human Rights Commission wants children removed from prisons

The Human Rights Commission (CDHDF) with the National Women’s Institute (INMUJERES) of Mexico City are holding a series of discussions questioning current penitentiary regulations which allow newborns and children under six years of age to remain with their mothers in prison. There is no State budget for these children, however, and they therefore often live […]

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Costa Rica, most refugees are Colombian

In Costa Rica there are 19.116 refugees, of whom 54% (about 10,375) are Colombians who leave their country because of the armed conflict. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) there are 40 different nationalities with refugee status claims present in Costa Rica. Read Article

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Legislative Assembly urged to criminalize femicide in Mexico City

Mexico City’s Human Rights Commission (CDHDF) and civil society organizations are urging the Legislative Assembly to vote in a special session to establish legal provisions criminalizing femicide in Mexico City, as reported by El Mexicano. María de la Luz Estrada, from the National Citizens’ Observatory for Femicide (OCNF), called for reforms under the General Law […]

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First same-sex divorce in Argentina

Lesbian couple Vanessa and Angela began the divorce process this week, they told agmagazine.info, making this the first same-sex divorce in Argentina since the equal marriage law was passed last year. The two were the first same-sex couple to be married in the province of La Rioja, gaining much media coverage at their wedding on […]

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Fresh evidence against ‘death flight’ pilot in Argentina

A new witness has emerged in the case against Argentinian-Dutch ‘death flights’ pilot Julio Poch. A Transavia staff member has given fresh evidence which implicates his role in Argentina’s ‘Dirty War’ in which opponents to the military regime were thrown from planes into the sea. Read Article

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Colombia: US corporation, Chiquita, linked to death squad; new evidence revealed

In April, the Washington, DC-based National Security Archive posted a 5500-page document tranche detailing the extent of Cincinnati-based food giant Chiquita’s dealings with Colombian death squad United Self Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC). The documents shed further light on the relationship between multinationals and Colombia’s murderous right-wing paramilitaries. Read Article

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Paraguay focuses on women’s and indigenous rights at UN conference

In an agreement made yesterday at a United Nations conference in Geneva, Paraguay accepted recommendations to review abortion laws and indigenous rights proposed during the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) in February, according to abc.com.py. During the most recent UPR, a basic examination of human rights issues that takes place every 4 years, it was suggested […]

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Colombia, Natives Criticize Santos’s Policies on Mining and Defense of Human Rights

•In Madrid, the Asociación de Cabildos Indígenas del Norte del Cauca criticized the Santos administration’s policies on mining as it intensifies the armed conflict as reported by elespetador.com. •The government’s policies on the mining of oil and gold are meant to aid the country in a financial crisis. •60% of Cauca is already under concession […]

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Southern Cone: Economic Rights for Women (Video)

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Honduras readmitted to the OAS despite human rights concerns

The General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS) lifted Honduras’ suspension to participation in the hemispheric group’s activities on June 1, 2011. The OAS Secretary General José Miguel Insulza reiterated during a General Assembly session on Citizen Security this week that the decision does not signify amnesty regarding human rights abuses in Honduras. […]

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Disappearances in Mexico increase, yet remain outside of state legislation

In the past five years, disappearances attributed to government institutions and criminal groups have increased in Mexico. Since December 1996, Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission has classified 5,397 people as “lost” or “absent”, with 500 of these disappearances originating in the state of Michoacan. While reliable statistics are difficult to establish and confirm, it remains […]

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Colombia: priest elected to head aboriginal rights group

For the first time in the history of the Regional Council of the indigenous of Cauca (CRIC), a Catholic priest was elected as its highest authority. Rev. Jesus Chavez, a native of Tierradentro and of the town of Inza, was already a leader of the Paez community – Belalcázar – in Colombia. He also served […]

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Colombia, FARC recruiting Indigenous children

Neiva. The fighting yesterday between troops of the Ground Combat Battalion No. 37, organic Brigade No. 29 and the sixth terrorist Farc allowed to expose the massive recruitment that would be suffered by indigenous people living in councils of the department of Cauca, limits to the west of Huila. The incident took place in an […]

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Mexico, struggle against impunity of rape as victim continues to live in hiding

Speaking to the General Council of the Spanish Bars in Madrid on Thursday, human rights activists from Mexico condemned the sexual violence committed against women, and in particular women from the most vulnerable groups of Mexican society according to elpais.com. One of the activists who testified was Valentina Rosendo, the indigenous woman who was tortured […]

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United Nations Condemns FARC and ELN’s Crimes Against Human Rights

•The United Nations’ Office of Human Rights in Colombia condemned the attacks led by the ELN and FARC as serious violations of human rights norms according to radiosantafe.com. •Christian Salazar, the representative of the High Commissioner of the UN for Human rights stresses that among these violations are homicides, indiscriminate attacks, and forced displacement. Read […]

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Argentina demonstration held in favor of abortion

A demonstration held last night in front of the National Congress demanded the legalization of abortion in Argentina. Demonstrators focussed on one idea; a “national campaign for the right to safe, legal and free abortion.” The event saw many speakers versed in political and social issues in the country along with entertainment by popular musicians. […]

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Córdoba, Argentina, AFIP fights against heinous working conditions

A raid ordered by Federal Court No. 3 and performed by the Federal Public Revenue Administration (AFIP) in Paso Viejo, Córdoba found 34 unregistered workers, including women and 2 children, working in subhuman conditions collecting and processing olives on a rural farm. They were forced to live in a camp on the job site with […]

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Argentina, Twins born to lesbian couple in Rosario to have both last names

The Civil Registry of Rosario has authorized that twins born through artificial insemination on May 5 to a lesbian couple will have the last name of both their mothers. The couple, after working alongside the Comunidad Homosexual Argentina (CHA) and in coordination with the Equal Marriage Act enacted on July 15, 2010, listed both of […]

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U.S. humanitarian group gives Mexico smugglers GPS emergency beacons

A humanitarian group said on Tuesday it has given emergency GPS location devices to Mexican human smugglers in a controversial bid to save immigrants’ lives as they break into increasingly remote desert stretches of the U.S. border this summer. Read Article

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Argentine Senate bans human trafficking

The fourteen voting members of the Senate met yesterday and passed a law banning human trafficking in Argentina, according to diarioelargentino.com. The “Trafficking Act” was pushed through by the CTA and Red Alerta who also proposed the creation of a program for the Prevention, Assistance and Protection of Human Trafficking. The new law requires the […]

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Pedophile ring disbanded by Argentine Federal Police

The Argentine branch of a worldwide pedophile network was demobilized last week after a series of 17 searches in the Federal Capital, Buenos Aires, Entre Rios, Corrientes, Cordoba and Santa Fe that uncovered huge numbers of pornographic material featuring children. According to lacapital.com.ar, the case began in mid 2010 after the Justice of Germany uncovered […]

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Paraguayan Sex Slaves Trafficked in Spain, Includes Minors

Paraguayan Virgin Sold for 400 Euros The story of the young girl sold to a Spanish man and those of other sex slaves from Paraguay are retold in a report, “Sex Slaves in Spain: Trafficking of Paraguayan women and girls” published in Madrid by Apramp (Asociación para la Prevención, Reinserción y Atención a la Mujer […]

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Colombia Human Rights

Colombians suffer a dire human rights situation due to the country’s 45-year-old internal armed conflict. Leftist guerrillas fight the state and illegal right-wing paramilitary organizations, which often collaborate with sectors of the Colombian armed forces. All of the parties to the conflict are responsible for human rights violations. Armed opposition groups, including the FARC (Revolutionary […]

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Jamaica sex offenses increasing

Police say public transport, social networking sites being used to target victims. Sex offenders have been using public transport, social networking sites, and job advertisements to target victims, the police have reported. According to Deputy Superintendent Gloria Davis-Simpson, head of the Centre for the Investigation of Sexual Offences and Child Abuse (CISOCA), reports have shown […]

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Arizona: 21 Arrested in Smuggling Ring

Law enforcement officials announced Thursday the arrest of 21 people who they said used a remote area of the Tohono O’Odham Indian reservation in Arizona. Read Article

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Lucky Illegals Caught at Border Won’t Face their Stiff Law

Mexican authorities recently stopped two tractor trailers containing a total of 513 illegal aliens. They were caught at a checkpoint, using X-ray equipment, in the county’s southern state of Chiapas, which borders Guatemala. They are, to some degree, lucky to have been caught before entering Mexico. Read Article

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Guatemala, gateway to the U.S. for Indians wanting to enter U.S. illegalyia

Smuggling corridor for Indians attempting to enter the US illegally, according to a Fox News Latino report published earlier this week. In the past three years, the number of Indians legally entering Guatemala through immigration checkpoints has surged dramatically. In 2008, only 304 Indians entered the country legally. By 2010, that number surged to 4,966—out […]

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Truckloads of migrants a billion-dollar business

X-ray machines at checkpoints in southern Mexico are capturing the ghostly outlines of a clandestine business worth billions a year, people packed tighter than cattle and transported like consumer goods in tractor trailers to the United States. Read Article

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Guatemala presidential candidate denounces threats of Los Zetas

Manuel Baldizón, leader of a minority opposition party, reported Thursday that their parents have received death threats from the Mexican cartel Los Zetas because they asked to punish those responsible for the killing of 27 people at a farm in northern department of Petén. Read Article

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Mexico City, Victims of 60 percent of Sexual Abuse are minors

In six of 10 cases of rape and sexual abuse recorded in the Federal District, the victim is a minor, while the abuser is a relative or acquaintance who acts even from within the home, gave to know the Sex Crimes Prosecutor of the Attorney General of the capital, Juan Camilo Bautista. Read Article

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Chile, Mapuche hunger strike now 63 days, health status of strikers critical

Critical is the health of the four Mapuche political prisoners held in prison in Angola, which are now serving 63 days on hunger strike. Héctor Llaitul , 43 years old, has dropped 20 kilos since he began fasting on 15 March, and has weakness, cramps in his limbs, insomnia and intense headache. Huillical Jonathan , […]

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Honduras, Local TV journalist gunned down in north, motive almost certainly linked to work

Reporters Without Borders condemns the murder of Héctor Francisco Medina Polanco, 35, the host of a news programme on provincial TV station Omega Visión, who died in a hospital in the northern city of San Pedro Sula yesterday from the gunshot injuries he had received the day before. Read Article

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Mexico, Journalist freed after three years in prison on baseless charges, plans exile

Reporters Without Borders hails provincial journalist Jesús Lemus Barajas’s release on 11 May and hopes that the authorities will one day explain how he came to be held for three years in the absence of any evidence against him, and compensate him for everything he has suffered. Lemus and his family now plan to go […]

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Homophobia contrasts in the Caribbean

While homosexuality is punishable by law in nine Caribbean island nations, gay activism is increasingly taking root in countries like Cuba. “The situation in the Caribbean today is one of contrasts,” Gloria Careaga, co-secretary general of the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA), founded in 1978 and with close to 700 member […]

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Brazil, Gay Rights Issues

Although gay rights organisations in Brazil are celebrating a historic triumph, legal recognition of civil unions by the Supreme Court, they say the struggle is far from over. Read Article

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Gay Couples in Costa Rica Want Right To Marry

With the decision to marry, two gay couples petitioned the Tribunales de Familia (Family Court) on Monday to be allowed to tie the knot. According to the couples, they are tired of making constitutional filings that respects their rights as homosexuals and therefore organized the campaing “Iguales nombres, iguales derechos” (Same name, same rights). Read […]

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Chile, 30 percent of human rights violators still in prison

About 29.5 percent of all convicted, Pinochet-era human rights violators are currently in jail, according to recent analysis by the Human Rights Observatory office of the Unversidad Diego Portales announced last week. The study determined that a total of 777 former security agents had been tried and found guilty since Chile’s return to democracy in […]

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Chile’s Human Rights Institute Questions Mapuche Prison Sentences

Director Lorena Fríes says reformed anti-terrorism law does not meet international standards. The head of Chile’s Human Rights Institute, Lorena Fríes, asserted this week that there are “sufficient grounds” to cancel the jail sentences given to four indigenous Mapuche activists earlier this year. The four men, members of the radical indigenous resistance group, Coordinadora Arauco […]

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Chile’s LGBT Community Fights For Equal Rights

Groups push for the approval of the Anti-Discrimination Law and protection of transsexual rights. The fight against homophobia in Chile is far from over, rights groups say, as countries worldwide commemorate the International Day Against Homophobia today, May 17. Read Article

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Mexico, Urgent Action Needed to address child migration to U.S.

According to information from the National Migration Institute, in the same year 20,438 repatriated Mexican migrant children from the United States, of which 13,705 traveled alone. This implies that at least some four thousand children were not channeled through the Mexican immigration authorities. Read Article

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Argentina, Child Sex Tourism arrived

With regard to sex tourism figures are estimates, because as a little crime and often poorly recorded (cases of exploitation in prostitution or sexual abuse passed as corruption of minors and trafficking cases may take as unlawful deprivation of liberty) and Whereas most countries have no national databases, it is believed that these figures actually […]

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Mexican Government Begins Overhaul of Corrupt Immigration Service

Mexico’s INM immigration agency announced Thursday the dismissal of all its personnel across seven states after undocumented Central American migrants accused migration officials of being in cahoots with organized crime. The purge is being carried out in the states of Mexico, Oaxaca, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosi, Tabasco, Tamaulipas and Veracruz, the main corridors for […]

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Belize Signs Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disablities

On May 9th, 2011 Belize became the 148th signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Belize joined the global commitment to further promote, protect and ensure the equal enjoyment of all human rights by one of the most vulnerable groups in our society – persons with disabilities. Read Article

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Rabbi Attacked in Argentina on Israel Independence Day with nunchakus

Buenos Aires rabbi was treated for injuries in a hospital Tuesday after being attacked by an assailant wielding a nunchaku martial arts weapon. Rabbi Moshe Cohen, the director of an Orthodox Jewish school in Buenos Aires, was accosted by a man who yelled, “Dirty Jew” and other insults against him on Monday night. Police have […]

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IACHR Condemns Lack of Protection for Two Colombia Human Rights Defenders

María del Socorro Mosquera and Mery Naranjo, two Colombian human rights defenders, have been receiving threats against themselves and their family members according to elespectador.com . The Inter-American Commission on Human rights declared in 2004 that preventative measures were necessary to protect these two individuals and the family members of Mery Naranjo. However, harassment and […]

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News group studies charges against Argentina gov’t

A delegation from the Inter-American Press Association was in Argentina Wednesday to study complaints that the government is trying to eliminate independent media. The group met with Public Communications Secretary Juan Manuel Abal Medina, who gave them a 10-page letter asserting that government restrictions on free expression don’t exist in Argentina. Read Article

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Reporter gunned down in northern Peru

A reporter who openly criticized regional government officials in northwestern Peru has been killed in a hail of gunfire, a Latin American press watchdog group has said. Julio Castillo Narvaez, who headed the newscast at Radio Ollantay in the northern city of Viru, was a fierce critic of regional authorities, the Lima-based Press and Society […]

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Cuba hunger strikers seek release of jailed US man

Two obscure Cuban dissidents who sewed their mouths partially shut and launched a hunger strike a month ago said they were prepared to die for their demands, which include freedom for jailed US contractor Alan Gross and improved human rights. Read Article

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Colombia, Government seeks to criminalize racism

The Government announced an struggle against racism in the country. From Quibdó (Chocó), the Minister of Interior and Justice, Germain Vargas Lleras, announced that the government will seek to “punish” acts harshly still exist in Colombia. Vargas announced that the punishment will be harder given that such discrimination should be eradicated. On the other hand, […]

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Colombia, child labor grows 35%

The number of workers aged between five and 17 years in Colombia rose from 786,300 in 2007 to 1,050,147 in 2009, which means an increase of 34%, according to a study by the state Department of Statistics (DANE) reported that Saturday. In his research, DANE said that during that period, the rate of child labor […]

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TV cameraman gunned down in bus near San Salvador

Alfredo Hurtado, 45, a cameraman employed by the privately-owned TV station Canal 33, was gunned down in bus in the town of Ilopango, near the capital, yesterday evening as he was on his way to work. The motive is not yet known. Read Article

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Ecuador: indigenous alliance accuses government of “genocide” in Amazon

Ecuador’s national indigenous organization announced last week that is filing a legal complaint against the government, including President Rafael Correa, for complicity with “genocide” against indigenous people in the Amazon. Read Article

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Mexico: homophobia, femicide under scrutiny

About a third of the Mexicans surveyed in the federal government’s National Poll on Discrimination in Mexico (Enadis) for 2010 said that what gives them the greatest anxiety is the fear of violent robbery. Another quarter told Enadis, a survey carried out each year since 2005, that they were most afraid of violence by drug […]

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Honduras: rights abuses may catch up with Aguán landowner

On April 8 a German development bank, DEG Deutsche Investitions- und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH, cancelled a previously approved loan to Grupo Dinant, a large Honduran company that produces snacks, other food products and cooking oil; the loan was reportedly worth $20 million. Shortly afterwards, EDF Trading, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the French energy firm Electricité de […]

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Panama to host Inter-American Court session

The Inter-American Court of Human Rights (CorteIDH) is slated to hold a session, for the very first time on Panamanian soil, to analyze cases against Argentina and El Salvador, reported an official source. Read Article

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Uruguay split over ending of amnesty for rights violations under dictatorship

Twenty-five years after democracy was restored in Uruguay the wounds are still not healed. The latest controversy centres on a bill to annul the amnesty that prevents prosecution of members of the military and police for alleged human rights violations under the dictatorship of 1973-85. Read Article

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Peru, Appeal to presidential candidates after journalist gets three years for defamation

The number of journalists in jail in Peru rose to two when Paul Garay Ramírez, a programme producer for Visión 47 TV and a correspondent for Radio La Exitosa, was sentenced to three years in prison by a court in the east-central region of Ucayali on 19 April for allegedly defaming a prosecutor. Read Article

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51 hostages rescued in Mexican border city of Reynosa

Mexican federal police rescued 51 migrant hostages who were being held in northeastern Mexico, the country’s public security ministry said Tuesday.The hostages were found Monday inside a house in the city of Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas. Read Article

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